The Opelousas courier., 1887-04-23
A CUP OF TEA.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT A
UNIVERSAL BEVERAGE.
Where Tea Comes From - What
1t Costs How 1t Is
Grown How 1t
Is Made.

The people of the United States arr
said to be coffee-drinkers, whereas thu
people of England are tea-drinkers; but
for all this, we consume in this country
something like rs, 000, 900 pounds of tea
every year. Taking the old wife's rule,
that to make a good cup of tea you must
put in "a pinch for every person at the
table and a pinch for the pot, this would
allow seventy-five cups of good tea each
year for every man, woman and chld In
the country.
The taste for tea has lasted in our race
for about two centuries. Before then our
ancestors drank small beer and sack at
their breakfast. The first teas brought
to this country came from Great Britain,
and had originally been imported from
the Dutch East Indies. The Chinese teas
did not make their appearance till much
later, and the japanese teas are of yester-
day. In the old days tea was dear and
only used by the rich.
The gradual increase IN the consump-
ton of tea must be ascribed partly to the
increase of wealth among the people, and
partly to the growing conviction that, on
the whole, tea is a wholesome beverage.
1t contains, however, but two elements
which possess alimentary value, and these
in small quantity, thus differing widely
in this respect from chocolate, which is
one of the most valuable articles of food
we have. The elements in question are
theme, which has the property of lessen
ing the waste tissue in the human body,
and thus taking the place of other food,
and ~tannin, whose value as an astringent
is known. 1t is hard to imagine any
one living on tea alone, but it is certain
that numbers of ladies, especially those in
delicate health, derive a large part OF
their nutriment from tea. Perhaps the
milksand sugar with which we adulterate
tea may be the source of nourishment in
the cup. Doctors agree that drunk to
excess it produces nervousness; in expert
ments upon the lower creation it has
caused paralysis; and the same disease oc-
casionally attacks tea-packers. In France,
where tea is seldom seen on the breakfast
table, it is frequently drunk by students
who desire to keep awake. 1t is mixed,
not with milk, but with rum. According
to Dickens, monthly nurses and women
of that glass in England mix gin with
their tea, and drink the compound out OF
the'spout of the teapot. In China, coun-
try people add ginger and salt to their
tea, in order to counteract its tendency to
produce lassitude. The higher classes in
China always drink it pure. In Russia,
honey is often mixed with tea to sweeten
it. In California, tea is chiefly drunk by |
women, and it goes without saying that
sugar and milk are the only articles with
which it is mixed. |
Few people nowadays need to be told
that the black and the green teas are
grown on the same shrub, and the leaf in
both is green when it is gathered. It is
by manipulation and by inducing a par
tial fermentation that the green leaf is
turned black. Both are the product of
the shrub known as the Thea; in South.
ern China it is known to botanists as the
Thea bohea; in Chekiang it is known as
the Thea viridis. The different nomen-
clature merely reflects the change pro-
duced in tie plant by a transfer from
temperate to a hot climate; its character
istics are identical in both cases. A GER
tain number, indeed nearly all the teas ex-
ported from China, are colored by artif-
cial processes; these are supposed to be
harmless, but it is possible that they NAV
not always be so.
Half the battle in tea Is knowing how
to make it. A careless h~ousekeeper
throws a handful of tea into a pot and
pours a lot of warm water on it; then she
is surprised that the guests at the tea
table make wry faces, and behind her
back called her tea ''slops.n It is with
tea as with coffee, the secret of ex-
tracing the essence and flavor is in in
that the water shall be actually
when it comes into contact with
the tea. This is very rarely done. Even
good tea-makers think their duty done
when they put a certain quantity of tea
in the pot, then pour over it a cup full of
which was boiling two or three
before, then leave it five minutes
draw. They certainly get something
the taste and fragrance of the herb, !
nothing like what they might extract
the tea were made in the kitchen by a t
good cook, who poured the water in by {
iriblets, stopping the supply whenever r
ceased, and then resuming the =
low after letting the kettle remain a
seconds on the fire.
The Chinese, who know how to make
ga, are particular about the water that is
Says Tung Pc, the Chinese Soyer:
Whenever tea is to be infused for use
AXE water from a running stream and
'oil it over a lively fire. 1t is an old Gus
to use running water boiled over a
lively fire; that from springs in the hills
$ said to be the best, and river water the
lext, while well water is the worst. A
lively fire is a clear, bright charcoal fire.
making an infusion do not boil the
vater too hastily. First, it should begin
Q sparkle like crabs eyes, then some
like fish's eyes, and lastly it boils
p like pearls innumerable. springino
waving about. This is the only true
Tay to boil the water" The Chinese :
,enerally make their tea cup by cup.n- {
an Fiancsso Cal.